Entertaining Sci-fi

Rating: 7/10 (15 April 2008)

The Island is an entertaining film, a decent sci-fi adventure. The story of the movie is an underground facility has the last remains of humanity after an environmental disaster. The people lived in a controlled environment and the people lived in hope that they would be picked to go to the Island, the only safe place left on Earth. However, Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) starts to question the society he was living in and with Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson), both make it to the real world. They discovery that everyone had been lied to, that the world was habitable and that they were really clones of the rich and famous.
The film was directed by Michael Bay, famous for big dumb action films like Bad Boys, the Rock, Armageddon and Transformers. The Island was Bay's first flop, but it is not his worst film. It is a little more intelligence and more subtle (I use these themes loosely). It does have good actions, which is what someone would expect from a Bay film. The film was set in 2019, and I believe that future world that was created in the film wasn't far-fetched and could possibly happen. The acting was decent, McGregor is also an actor I like. Johansson is a nice bit of eye candy and isn't a bad actress. Sean Bean is a good actor and plays the villain in the film, which he normally does. Steve Buscemi adds a bit of comic relief and an actor Bay likes to use. Michael Clarke Duncan, an other actor Bay likes, has pretty much a cameo role.
The films does have some problems. There is too much product placement, which I understand, but they is a limit to how much a film can get away with. Another example of a film with too much product placement would be Die Another Day. The film could have been a little shorter, but only a little. Also the film does have a few plot holes such as why don't more clones question the system they live in or why there is an Island or that sexually attraction is natural, no matter whether some has sex education or not.
However, the Island is good and is worth watching if on TV or a good priced DVD.